“Twenty-Twenty”…just listen to how that rolls off the tongue – “Twenty-Twenty” – doesn’t that sound epic? What do you mean you can’t hear how epic it sounds? Maybe you need to turn up the volume? Lean in a little closer…tell those people behind you to be quiet so you can listen to its epic-ness! What? You can’t hear printed word? Well, it is an acquired skill. You’d have to spend years living in mountains of hoarded newsprint, with special hand-written monks, to achieve the heightened sense of enwritenment required to do it. It’s a rare special talent few people possess and you are obviously not one of those special people so -”TWENTY TWENTY” …doesn’t that LOOK epic?
Well whether it sounds, looks, feels, smells or tastes like it, it is. This is the first time in over a century that the year has been a synchronistic number. That being a number that’s first two digits are equivalent to its last two digits. It is also probably the only time within your lifetime you will see such a phenomenon. So enjoy it while it lasts, because it’ll be over in 365 days… however one would enjoy such a thing that long.
Numerical anomaly aside, the year 2020 also represents the beginning of a historical, altering event. As in an event that will change the way we view “history” in the future. The last time the year was a synchronistic number was in 1919 – 101 years gone by. The following year was of course 1920 and the beginning of the decade that has been historically referred to as The Roaring Twenties in the United States. It was called “roaring” because of the exuberant, freewheeling popular culture of the times. It was a time when many people defied Prohibition, indulged in new styles of dancing and dressing, and rejected many traditional moral standards.
Now with the dawning of the decade of 2020 and those that will follow, when speaking of the “20’s” will we need to specify the century? Will people have to correct others in historical referencing conversations by saying “No, I meant in the “nineteen” twenties not the “twenty” twenties!” Will the new 20’s be roaring like the old? Or will they have some other defining title that sets them apart from those that roared? Taking into consideration our current modern societies fear of definition by labels, because someone’s feeling may get hurt, probably not.
Of course we may not have to worry about accidentally cross-referencing or confusing our decades. Because there is the distinctly high possibility that once the new nameless 20’s have passed the roaring ones will become mostly forgotten irrelevancy. Trickling down to a brief series of memorable events and lost to high school history classes and museums. Perhaps the old twenties will be completely overwritten by the new.
Sounds ridiculous doesn’t it? How could we lose track of an entire era? Well in the 1920’s 20’s how many people were considering confusion with the 1820’s 20’s? In our current time frame when someone mentions the thirties, forties, fifties etc., do you ever confuse the century? No you immediately reflect on the century in which you’ve lived the longest and pop a “19” in front of it. You subconsciously do this with no thought given to its potential place in previous centuries; unless it involves a historically significant event. As the 21st century rolls in this process will begin anew. As a new train of subconscious thought emerges for future generations, to whom the decades of the 20th century will seem archaic. Theirs will be their own and bear no willing or realized reference to ours…there will be more 80’s to come.
The sad reality is that history gradually devours itself, with its digestive cycle lasting roughly 100 years (give or take a decade). After which a few indigestible pieces make it through in a fecal sea of forgotten memories. In which the majority of and then all of us will eventually drown. Should this trouble us? Should we fret over the knowledge that ourselves, everything we know, even the very time frame in which we exist, is ceasing to relevantly exist? Ask me again one hundred years from now. Then consider as to whether or not the answer would really matter anymore then than it does now.
I welcome almost all questions and comments via FOCUS, or E-mail me directly at [email protected].
Hope to hear from you, until then try and stay focused. See ya!
